By Andrea McGovern
CONCORD TOWNSHIP-Even in her teens, Lois Crosby had already developed an interest in healthy eating.“It was the ‘60s, and healthy eating was a trend,” she said. “I was a vegetarian for a while.”
This was after growing up in a family with 12 children and eating “lots of goulash and hamburgers.”
“My husband and I met soon after graduating from college, and went back to grad school at Virginia Tech together. In those days we were vegetarians mainly for economic reasons. It wasn’t exotic. We didn’t use a lot of expensive herbs and spices. Just whatever our meager funds could buy,” she said.
“That was a lifetime ago. We have been carnivores for quite a while.”
Crosby was taking her master’s degree in nutrition, and her husband Kevin was studying chemistry. After graduation, the couple, both originally from the Albany, N.Y. area, lived in Virginia and St. Louis. They settled in Concord Township 19 years ago, when Kevin took a job at Ricerca, is a biochemical research company that works with the pharmaceutical industry.
Crosby is a registered dietitian and has held a number of positions in her field. She believes many people don’t really know what a dietitian does.
“Mainly we work in one of three areas,” she said. “The first is food service, where we might work in schools, hospitals or nursing homes. A clinical dietitian mainly works in a hospital setting with sick people. The third area is wellness, and that would be in a community setting. That is what I have always done.”
In Missouri, Crosby worked for the dairy council conducting nutrition education in schools. In Ohio, she taught wellness classes at Lake Hospital/University Hospital Mednet. Then she became a staff dietitian at Kaiser Permanente, helping patients with weight loss issues, diabetes and heart disease, and teaching classes. She is now employed by the YMCA of Lake County, where she teaches nutrition classes and does one-to-one counseling with members.
“I love working at the Y,” she said. “My clients want to see me. When you are working with motivated people, it makes the job much easier. It’s good stuff to help people. It’s even more gratifying when they actually listen to you.”
The Crosbys have two teenage children, Allison and Brian. They are active in sports and other school activities, and neither is driving yet, so they keep their mom busy with chauffeuring and attending events.
In her spare time, Crosby loves to read, especially spiritual, nonfiction and nutrition books. She belongs to a book club and attends bible study and a prayer group each week.
She also saves a little time for Bunco once a month.
The family worships at St. Gabriel Parish.
McGovern is a freelance writer.
ANDREA MC GOVERN
Teaching others how to eat properly and to choose nutritious foods has been a lifelong pursuit for Lois Crosby, who now teaches in the wellness program at the YMCA of Lake County.
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